Venue scrap 'slap against the integration': Guyana President

Donald Ramotar, President of Guyana, has expressed his displeasure with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and their decision to scrap the third Test from the country's Providence stadium. He termed the move to shift the venue for the third Test against NZ to Barbados as a blow to regional integration.

WICB had said that it 'has serious reservations that the Cricket Administration Bill, which was passed in the Guyana National Assembly, thrusts the administration of cricket in Guyana from an independent body to the Government of Guyana.'

They deemed the bill as 'as undesirable and inconsistent with International Cricket Council (ICC) tenets' and thus decided to move the Test against New Zealand, between June 26 and June 30, to Barbados.

Ramotar insisted that his his government was meddling in the running of cricket in Guyana. He said that the game had helped bring the region together and the scrapping of the venue was a 'slap against the whole integration movement'.

"This is where I would lay the blame. I will have a discussion with them and try to see if they could bring people together to find a solution. But they want us to drop some of the things in the bill that was passed and some other preconditions. The arrogance of WICB is unbelievable. Imagine they don't invest anything in cricket," said Ramotar.

Ramotar said that the Jamaican government has bigger problems that cricket politics to deal with at the moment.

"It's totally untrue what is being peddled that government wants to interfere with cricket. We have enough problems on our hands than to want to get involved in cricket politics, we got bigger politics to deal with. I don't know how this bill would have given government control of cricket as some of them are trying to make out," he added.